2002 QMJHL Entry Draft Preview

By Phil Laugher

June 14th, 2002

Greetings folks,

It is hard to believe that the off-season for the Halifax Mooseheads isalready half over. The unofficial midway point comes this Saturday, whenall sixteen QMJHL teams participate in the league’s 2002 Midget Draft. Thisyear’s draft is being held in Bathurst, New Brunswick, at the KC Irving Center.

The Sherbrooke Castors have the distinction of holding the first overallpick in this year’s draft, and skilled, hard-nosed Magog forward AlexBourret is pegged as the top prospect, who could potentially go to theCastors. However, should Sherbrooke decide to trade that pick, there aremany other players who could leapfrog over Bourret and emerge as the toppick in this year’s draft, such as Amos sniper Brent Aubin, or Girouardforward Kevin Mailhiot. Selecting second will be the Moncton Wildcats, whohave missed the playoffs the last two years, yet have managed to build up asolid core of youngsters in the process.With the Memorial Cup being held in Quebec in 2003, there could be abarrage of trades on draft day as teams look to get a leg up on theircompetition. The current draft order for Saturday’s draft, barring anytrades, is as follows:

Halifax will likely be looking towards adding forwards to their depletedfour lines on draft day, as Jason King and Robbie Sutherland are gone aftertheir overage seasons, Sergei Klyazmin is likely gone to the minor-proranks in the Colorado system, and more forwards may be victims of theoverage numbers game. On defence, Halifax is solid, with potentially sevenregular defensemen from the 2001-2002 season returning to the fold.Here is a list of the top 80 midget and bantam players eligible forSaturday’s draft, with statistics for most players:

Saturday afternoon should be very interesting, as teams jockey forpositions in the standings two months before training camps begin, and asthe next batch of QMJHL superstars find their starting points.

Until next time, this is Phil Laugher, signing off for Hockey’s Future.